THE FUTURE OF PRINTED MAGAZINES BETWEEN

SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEW DIGITAL DEVICES

Dario Bonazellid.bonazelli@libero.it

Trends and Strategies in the Creative Industries

2009/2010

Sofie Spindler Question

Have digital media and interactive media influence, pushed and reinvented the structure of classic magazine’s form?

How will the future of the glossy magazines be ?

My question:How will the future of printed magazine

looks like?

As media change, our perception change

According to Marshall McLuhan our perception is deeply influenced once a new medium appears in everyday life and overcomes the one already existent. For instance, the invention of the press brought the cultural dominance of the visual over the oral

As Walter Benjamin (1936) argued, the introduction in the early twentieth century of new techniques to produce, reproduce and circulation works of art on a mass level, has radically changed the attitude towards the art of both artists and the public

New technologies never completely replace old technology…

The invention of camera

didn’t replace paintings

Cars didn’t replace horses

…we generally found new purposes for “old tech”

New art movements emerged:

Impressionism Cubism

Surrealism…

New purposes for horse riding

Carlota Perez

Where we are now in digital revolution?

• Newspaper circulation in U.S is down 7 millions over the last 25 years

• Last 5 years unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million (Source: Newspaper Association of America)

Chicago Sun-Times, The Star Tribune Holdings Corporation, the Journal Register Company, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC The Rocky Mountain

News, Portfolio, PC Magazine Domino, Country Home … (Source Associated Press)

Bankruptcy!

Advertisers invest strongly on the Web and less and less on printed

versions

Readers are not stopping reading they rather go on the Internet

Magazine’ format fits better the challenge of internet than newspapers

• There are titles for every kind of interests (niche market)

• More visual content

• Magazine circulations are not declining as rapidly as those of newspapers

• With the proliferation of niche titles, it could be argued that magazines share some of the targeted quality of web sites. Magazines could in fact be called “new old media” or “old new media”

• Magazines are old new media that are going to be destructed creatively by digital interactive media

Changing overtime

1942 - A romantic kiss image fully dominates the cover: may it be a consequence of the wide diffusion of photography?

1897 - Old-fashioned title, no images and index in full

2009 - A well-endowed model in the center and dazzling titles at her sides in a non-linear order as the hyperlinks are arranged on the website

How to save magazines?

Reduce print copies and implement new strategies of distribution in order to minimize such costs

Websites and printed version of the same magazine needs to provide different services in order to avoid annoying repetitions and inefficiencies

How to save magazines?Adding an artistic value to the content.

How? Designers can do that.

How to save magazines?Developing co-creativity by crossing media

operations

Be a brand

- Maxim’ started programming events together with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Las Vegas

- Esquire partenered with Nokia

Further research proposalfor the Short terms

I propose to conduct market researches in order to find other firms connected to publishing and to implement strategies of partnership

From Web 2.0…

… to Web 3.0

Further research proposalfor the Long-term

Users are still not familiar with interactive technologies:I suggest to investigate the usability of an innovative

device like e-book throughout practical tests and surveys on samples

Questions?